Rail replacement services - small things could make a big difference

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From a planned rail replacement journey yesterday ...

It's the simple things ...

The absence of any timetable information about the times trains are leaving today from THIS station, and of a notice telling people at what amended times they can set off back later to get home

The bus that leaves earlier than the regular train - left 4 minutes before the connecting train was due

The handful (that's 5) extra staff in green high-vis hanging around chatting with each other (and I was there for about an hour so this was not just a quick liaison meeting) at an already staffed station when the next station up the line was totally unstaffed, with bus depertures disappearing off the screen before the bus has even arrived.

I could go on ... let me just leave it at those three points for the moment.


I am grateful to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) for sorting out various fare issues after the last blockade, and adjusting one of the connections. I do wonder hwo much extra it would really cost them in terms of money and organisation to take a few more simple steps like putting up timetables and not just summaries of principles ("off peak trains replaced by buses, morning peak trains up to 20 minutes earlier" to be supplemented by an actual timetable), for example.  And how about putting a member of the extra team at an otherwise unstaffed station rather than paying them to all be at the one over-staffed place?   

I fear that the first piece of disruption in a pattern is planned to be done as cost-effetively as possible for GWR, with limited adjustments where the natives are restless for the next run in the same pattern.  And if the natives haven't got restless enough in the first pattern to change for the second, changes of changes for the third, fourth ... seem pretty slim.

We have ten weeks of off peak trains replaced by buses on the TransWilts this year.  Pewsey and Bedwyn have ten weeks of all their services being replaced.  I fear that the points raised (above, and by the other groups) will be considered only with lip service, and even little things that could make a big difference will not be done.   There are some bigger things that could be done - replacement of a 30 minute train service with an hourly bus (and making people connecting wait 40 miutes for it) is cheapskate (I have been told "budget").  And the whole need to complete this year ... has been explained to me, but looks to be a veneered presentation; whether the veneer is on a piece of solid wood, or chipboard, I know not.

[BandHcommuter]

Absolutely agree, it's the attention to detail during major service alterations which can successfully mitigate the impact on many customers. As is common however, the service provision has not always been planned around the journeys people actually want to make. As an example, during the Berks and Hants blockade last time, I was waiting for a train at Westbury station early in the morning. A lady arrived and asked staff how she could get to Hungerford, her usual trains at 0616 and 0701 not running.

Well there is a rail replacement bus to Pewsey at 0645 arriving at 0735. However this terminates at Pewsey, and the passenger demand for such a service is such that a single taxi would probably be overprovision. There is also a rail replacement bus from Pewsey to Hungerford, unfortunately timed to leave five minutes before the bus from Westbury arrives. So a passenger flow with virtually zero demand (Westbury to Pewsey first thing in the morning) is served, whereas other flows with demonstrable demand (Westbury to Hungerford/Newbury) are not effectively served. From what I overheard, the lady in question was advised to travel to Reading via Bath (at least 90 minutes), and then pick up a bus taking nearly an hour to Hungerford. The usual journey time is about 35 minutes. This issue could easily have been mitigated with attention to such details in planning replacement services.